Areas of Application
As a middle-range theoretical platform, social complexity can be applied to any research in which social interaction or the outcomes of such interactions can be observed, but particularly where they can be measured and expressed as continuous or discrete data points. One common criticism often cited regarding the usefulness of complexity science in sociology is the difficulty of obtaining adequate data. Nonetheless, application of the concept of social complexity and the analysis of such complexity has begun and continues to be an ongoing field of inquiry in sociology. From childhood friendships and teen pregnancy to criminology and counter-terrorism, theories of social complexity are being applied in almost all areas of sociological research.
In the area of communications research and informetrics, the concept of self-organizing systems appears in mid-1990s research related to scientific communications. Scientometrics and bibliometrics are areas of research in which discrete data are available, as are several other areas of social communications research such as sociolinguistics. Social complexity is also a concept used in semiotics.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the diversity of areas of application has grown as more sophisticated methods have developed. Social complexity theory is applied in studies of social cooperation and public goods;altruism; education; collective action and social movements; social inequality; workforce and unemployment; policy analysis; health care systems; and innovation and social change, to name a few.
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